With one foot out of the door of Germany’s finance ministry, the former head of the German economy, Wolfgang Schuble, 75, delivered a fire and brimstone warning over the weekend, telling the FT in an interview that there was a danger of “new bubbles” forming due to the trillions of dollars that central banks have pumped into markets. Schuble also warned of risks to stability in the eurozone, particularly those posed by bank balance sheets burdened by the post-crisis legacy of non-performing loans, something we warned about since 2012, and an issue which remains largely unresolved. Taking a broad swipe at the current financial regime – which he helped design – Schauble warned that the world was in danger of ‘encouraging new bubbles to form’. “Economists all over the world are concerned about the increased risks arising from the accumulation of more and more liquidity and the growth of public and private debt. I myself am concerned about this, too,” he said echoing the concern voiced just one day earlier by IMF head Christine Lagarde, who said the world was enjoying its best growth spurt since the start of the decade, but warned of ‘threats on the horizon’ from ‘high levels of debt in many countries to rapid credit expansion in China, to excessive risk-taking in financial markets’. And while Schauble’s dramatic warning was not surprising – prominent economists have a habit of telling the truth once their tenure is over, and once they start selling books warning about all the consequences of policies they helped adopt – one day later a more surprising, and just as urgent warning was delivered by the Dutch central bank, DNB, which on Monday said that ultra-loose monetary policy in the euro zone has run its course, and excessive risks seem to be building up in financial markets making the financial sector vulnerable to a sudden correction.

While JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he “would fire” any employee found trading Bitcoin, Goldman Sachs’ leadership is embracing reality as WSJ reports the bank is weighing a new trading operation dedicated to bitcoin and other digital currencies. On the heels of IMF Chief Christine Lagarde’s comments that: “… the technology itself can replace national monies, conventional financial intermediation, and even puts a question mark on the fractional banking model we know today… So I think it may not be wise to dismiss virtual currencies.” Bitcoin’s price has continued higher – erasing the losses from China and Jamie Dimon’s comments…

The International Monetary Fund’s top staff misled their own board, made a series of calamitous misjudgments in Greece, became euphoric cheerleaders for the euro project, ignored warning signs of impending crisis, and collectively failed to grasp an elemental concept of currency theory.This is the lacerating verdict of the IMF’s top watchdog on the fund’s tangled political role in the eurozone debt crisis, the most damaging episode in the history of the Bretton Woods institutions.It describes a ‘culture of complacency’, prone to ‘superficial and mechanistic’ analysis, and traces a shocking breakdown in the governance of the IMF, leaving it unclear who is ultimately in charge of this extremely powerful organisation.The report by the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) goes above the head of the managing director, Christine Lagarde. It answers solely to the board of executive directors, and those from Asia and Latin America are clearly incensed at the way European Union insiders used the fund to rescue their own rich currency union and banking system.The three main bailouts for Greece, Portugal and Ireland were unprecedented in scale and character. The trio were each allowed to borrow over 2,000pc of their allocated quota – more than three times the normal limit – and accounted for 80pc of all lending by the fund between 2011 and 2014.

The International Monetary Fund agreed to a new conditional bailout for Greece, ending two years of speculation on whether it would join in another rescue and giving the seal of approval demanded by many of the country’s euro-area creditors.The Washington-based fund said Thursday its executive board approved ‘in principle’ a new loan worth as much as $1.8 billion. The disbursement of funds is contingent on euro-zone countries providing debt relief to Greece.‘As we have said many times, even with full program implementation, Greece will not be able to restore debt sustainability and needs further debt relief from its European partners,’ IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement. ‘A debt strategy anchored in more realistic assumptions needs to be agreed. I expect a plan to restore debt sustainability to be agreed soon between Greece and its European partners.’IMF officials estimate that, even if Greece carries out promised reforms, the nation’s debt will reach about 150 percent of gross domestic product by 2030, and become ‘explosive’ beyond that point. European creditors could bring the debt under control by extending grace periods, lengthening the maturity of the debt or deferring interest payments, the IMF said in a report accompanying the announcement.

In a comment sure to stir up questions over dollar hegemony (and new world order conspiracy thoughts), IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde admitted during an event today in Washington that The International Monetary Fund could be based in Beijing in a decade. As Reuters reports, Lagarde said that such a move was “a possibility” because the Fund will need to increase the representation of major emerging markets as their economies grow larger and more influential. “Which might very well mean, that if we have this conversation in 10 years’ time…we might not be sitting in Washington, D. C. We’ll do it in our Beijing head office,” Lagarde said. Lagarde’s comments build on questions raised in May on The IMF’s push for World Money… Yi Gang, the Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China disclosed to the IMF panel that, ‘China has started reporting our foreign official reserves, balance of payment reports, and the international investment position reports.’ ‘All of these reports, now, in China are published in U. S dollars, SDR and Renminbi rates… I think that has the advantage of reducing the negative impact of negative liquidity on your assets.’

In numerous articles over the years I have outlined in acute detail the agenda for a future one-world economic and governmental system led primarily by banking elites and globalists; an agenda they sometimes refer to as the “New World Order.” The term has gained such public exposure and notoriety recently that the globalists have fallen back to using different terminology. Some of them, like the International Monetary Fund’s Christine Lagarde, refer to it as the “global economic reset.” Others call it the “new multilateralism.” Still others refer to it as the “end of the unipolar order,” referring to the slow death of the U. S. economy as the central pillar of the global economy. Whatever label they decide to use, all of them signal a full spectrum destabilization of the “old world” financial and geopolitical system and the ascendance of a tightly controlled one world edifice dominated openly by globalist hubs like the IMF and the BIS. Too many people, even in the liberty movement, tend to examine only the veneer of this agenda. Some have deluded themselves into thinking the U. S. and the dollar are actually the core of the NWO and are therefore indispensable to the globalists. As I have shown time and time again, the Federal Reserve is now on a fast track to complete its sabotage of the U. S. economy; they would not be instigating instability and crisis to deflate the massive fiscal bubbles they have created unless America was at least partially expendable.

Update: it appears there isn’t really a deal, but merely a can kicking. As the WSJ adds, the Greek “agreement” merely unlocks a key disbursement of bailout fund but puts a decision on debt relief off until next year. Specifically, the agreement reached in Luxembourg among the finance ministers of the eurozone unlocks 8.5 billion for Greece and puts off a final decision on debt relief until August of next year. In other words, Europe agrees to pay Greece so Greece can then turn around and repay Europe the July 7 billion debt payment; meanwhile no firm, long-term deal has been reached. As the WSJ put its, “the creditors’ refusal to lighten the burden of Greece’s crushing debt reflects a mix of mistrust and indifference that leaves the depleted country with bleak prospects for the future and at risk of needing yet another bailout.”

With the Trump administration having gone radio silent in recent weeks on the issue of currency manipulation and whether it sees the dollar, or other currencies, as under- or over-valued, there was a notable if vague update from U. S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who spoke to the IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Tuesday and told her that he expects the IMF to provide “frank and candid” analysis of exchange rate policies. There was no elaboration of what the apriori US stance was coming into the conversation. The spokesperson said that in a phone call with Lagarde, Mnuchin also “noted the importance that the administration places on boosting economic growth and jobs in the United States, and looked forward to robust IMF economic policy advice on its member countries and tackling global imbalances.”

As we scoffed oveernight, who better than a handful of semi, and not so semi, billionaires – perplexed by the populist backlash of the past year – to sit down and discuss among each other how a “squeezed and Angry” middle-class should be fixed. And so it was this morning as IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and Founder, Chairman and Co-CIO of Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio, espoused on what’s needed to restore growth in the middle class and confidence in the future. The conclusions of the discussion are as farcical as the entire Davos debacle, as three people completely disconnected from the real world, sat down and provided these “answers”… As Bloomberg reports, while International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde urged a list of policies from programs to retrain workers to more social spending…

With fears mounting over China’s debt load sustainability, and amid yet another liquidity crisis, President Xi Jinping appeared to admit that China’s economic growth will slow below the government’s 6.5% target. Despite the promise of creating a “modestly prosperous society,” Xi warned that China doesn’t need to meet the objective if doing so creates too much risk – a little late for that after trillions of freshly created credit was spewed into zombified firms this year – but at least reality is starting to set in. Last year’s 6.9 percent expansion was the slowest in a quarter century. For this year, the government set a 6.5 percent to 7 percent target range, slower than last year’s goal of about 7 percent. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said earlier in February that the fund strongly recommended that China set a growth target range of 6 percent to 6.5 percent. As Bloomberg reports, too much emphasis on meeting growth objectives is increasing financial risk, according to Huang Yiping, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China. The higher the short-term growth target, the more difficult it will be to rebalance the economy to favor long-term growth, Huang, an economics professor at Peking University, said at an event this week in Beijing.

Christine Lagarde looked to be safe in her role as the International Monetary Fund’s managing director on Monday night after its board gave her its backing, just hours after she was convicted of ‘negligence’ over a huge payout to a business tycoon while she was French finance minister.The IMF board praised the ‘wide respect and trust’ for Mrs Lagarde’s leadership as it expressed its ‘full confidence’ in her ability to continue in the role at the upper echelons of international finance.Mrs Lagarde, who has maintained her innocence throughout the process, said she was ‘not satisfied’ with the verdict but would not appeal against the decision. ‘There is a point in time when one has to just stop, turn the page and move on, and continue to work with those who have put their trust in me,’ she said.The ruling came after a week-long trial in which she received a rough ride. Ms Lagarde had maintained her innocence, and the prosecutor had asked for an acquittal over the “very weak” case after advising against bringing it to court in the first place.

Update: The IMF says in a statement following the Lagarde news that its board will meet shortly to consider the conviction. ‘The executive board has met on previous occasions to consider developments related to the legal proceedings in France,’ IMF spokesman Gerry Rice says in e-mail, and adds that ‘It is expected that the board will meet again shortly to consider the most recent developments’: * * * International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde was found guilty of one count of negligence by a French court today, according to Bloomberg News. She was accused of failing to prevent a massive government payout to businessman Bernard Tapie eight years ago, while serving as France’s finance minister, but most surprising, she will face no fine or jail sentence.

Christine Lagarde is taking time off her day job tackling the world’s financial crises to face trial on Monday for her role in a $425 million state payout to a French tycoon in 2008.The well-respected, silver-haired head of the International Monetary Fund denies wrongdoing in the case, which dates to her time in the French government when she was finance minister.Lagarde, 60, faces up to a year in prison and a 15,000 ($16,000) fine if convicted of negligence. The judges are expected to return a verdict in the wake of the last hearing, on December 20, but they can also announce a ruling at a later date.The trial and possible conviction may raise concern about her ability to remain IMF boss. The Washington-based institution’s credibility was already shaken when her predecessor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also a French citizen, was forced to resign amid allegations of sexual assault in 2011.The IMF’s board has so far supported Lagarde at all stages of the French legal proceedings, which began the month after her appointment in July 2011. It reiterated its support and confidence last week.In an interview with France 2 television on Sunday, Lagarde said she was confident that she had done nothing wrong

We hear you, poor people. That was the message that blared out from Washington last week. It came from Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund. It came from Jim Kim of the World Bank. It came from Roberto Azevdo of the World Trade Organisation. It came from every finance minister and central bank governor.The people who run the global economy wanted the world to know that they understood what had caused the Brexit vote and given Donald Trump a shot at the White House. They talked a lot about the need for inclusive growth and a capitalism that worked for all. To those who have been left behind in the past three decades, they said: we get it, we feel your pain.The recognition that there is a problem is progress. Lagarde means it when she says the growing gap between rich and poor is holding back the global economy. Kim genuinely wants to see the fruits of growth skewed towards the bottom 40% in every country. The World Bank, IMF and WTO can sense that they are sitting on the edge of a volcano that could blow at any time. They fear, rightly, that a second big crash within a decade would create a backlash leading to protectionism and the rise of dark political forces that would be difficult, if not impossible, to control.That there are ingredients for a fresh crisis became apparent at various stages last week. According to the IMF, global debt has risen to a record level of $152tn (122trillion) – more than double global GDP – at a time when activity is sluggish. Collapsing commodity prices and weak demand from the west has meant that growth in sub-Saharan Africa is running at half the level of population increases. Companies in the emerging world loaded up on debt during the commodity boom and are vulnerable to rising U.S. interest rates and any softening of the world economy. China is the most egregious example of debt being used to boost activity artificially.

Having noted previously IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde’s comments that for the IMF to “thrive”, the world has to “goes downhill,” today’s warning this morning that the global economy “may not have the tools to handle another shock,” seems to come at an inopportune time. Indeed, as Heat Street notes, it seems nothing can stop this woman… Does being the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund mean never having to say sorry? As Christine Lagarde blunders on from one mishap to another with apparent insouciance, it would appear so.

Market panic over Deutsche Bank AG(NYSE: DB) reached a fever pitch this week as the stock slumped 10% from $13.17 on Monday morning to $12.13 today (Wednesday). It’s currently sitting at its lowest level in more than 20 years. In fact, today’s DB stock price is 51% less than its lowest price during the 2008 financial crisis (which was $24.58). Of course, investors are worried the bank may not be able to afford the massive $14 billion fine the U. S. government imposed on it Sept. 16 for trading in toxic mortgages a decade ago. But earlier today, Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), assured global media that she doesn’t believe DB will need a bailout.

This post was published at Wall Street Examiner by Money Morning Staff Reports ‘ September 28, 2016.

On the far eastern edge of Canada sits Little Bay Islands, a beautiful, dying village divided by crisis. The fish plant was shuttered half a decade ago, and most supporting businesses – as well as the school – have closed with it. Perry Locke is among the tiny population that’s left. He served as the mayor, the fire chief and now runs the power-generating station. His son was the last student enrolled in town.Fishing villages like this one built Newfoundland and Labrador, a coastal province sent into a tailspin by a fishery collapse, oil-price slump and mounting debt that left it with Canada’s most severe fiscal and demographic crisis. The provincial government now is pushing to close places like Little Bay Islands altogether rather than service them, offering Locke and his neighbors at least C$250,000 ($189,000) each to leave – and spurring a bitter, three-year fight over whether to cash out or endure.‘It’s like a disease. Once a community gets infected, there’s no cure for it. You’ll either stay sick from it, or you’ll die,’ said Locke, 51, standing on his porch in July overlooking the bay. He voted to stay, worried he’ll lose his job if everyone leaves and the power station closes. Many residents now blame him for ruining a windfall. ‘Nothing we can do to change it now. The damage is done. And the damage is irreversible.’Little Bay Islands is a world away from Canada’s glamorous global cities: Toronto and its big banks, Vancouver and its housing boom, Calgary and its oil patch. The town, and all of Newfoundland for that matter, have come to represent the grim underbelly of Canada’s economic outlook: a commodity bust, weak growth, mounting provincial debt and an aging population. The province is closing libraries and schools, reining in health care and boosting taxes, all while International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and others praise Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for using fiscal policy to drive national expansion.

21st Century Wire says… Once in while, a feel good story comes around. As we covered in our recent episode ofON THE QT @21WIRE. TV, the thought of IMF head Christine Lagarde facing trial over her $440 million pay-off to elite insider Bernard Tapie – a certain to bring a smile to many. For years, the public have had to endure watching globalist elites swooning around their jet-set circuit, from Aspen, to Wall Street, to the World Economic Forum in Davos, as they pontificate about ‘economics’, and alongside their pop culture mascots like Bono from U2 seated comfortably in their Gulfstream Jets, they claim to pedalling ‘solutions’ and that they are somehow saving the world’s poor from abject poverty. However, Lagarde isn’t the first international bankster luminary to be led into the dock. No sooner did previous IMF head Dominique Straus-Khan announce during a speech about the ‘risks for the global economy’ and called for a new approach to economic policymaking, Straus-Khan was swiftly brought down after being accused of raping an NYC hotel maid. Later, he was dragged over the media coals for his membership to a elite VIP ‘sex party’ ring.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned at the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, that in the face of crises, the refusal to reform how things are functioning will lead to economic weakness in the global economy. ‘The latest data show subdued activity, less growth in trade and a very low inflation, suggesting an even weaker global economic growth this year,’ the IMF told G20 leaders. Indeed, we are looking at 2016 coming in as the fifth consecutive year in which global growth will be below the average of 3.7% which prevailed between 1990 and 2007. The IMF said: ‘Without strong political countermeasures the world could suffer a disappointing growth’ for several years to come. Christine Lagarde told world leaders: ‘Even in the longer term the outlook remains disappointing.’